God's world (Ephesians 4:17-32, Philippians 4:4-7, Psalm 24:1-2)

"The  earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains. The world, and those who dwell in it.
For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers."
(Psalms 24:1-2 NASB)
© Karen Kyle Ericson, all rights reserved.

I forgot to mention in my last post, when I go out and do ministries on my own, I let my Pastors know what I'm up to.  That way they know we don't all sleep in Church : )  They work so hard and certainly deserve encouragement. It was fun to thank my first Pastor for leading me to Christ 38 years ago.  I sent him a copy of my testimony.

(Ephesians 4:17-32 NKJV)
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Hmmm "walking in the futility of your mind..."  Yikes!  I see that as someone who is living in an imaginary world.  Just there.  Sometimes I ask Todd what he's thinking and he says, "Nothing."  
So I ask, "Nothing?"
He answers, "doooooo.  Yup nothing."
I think all the time!  It must be so relaxing : )  

To me, these verses describe people who are constantly thinking.  If something doesn't make sense, they make up a solution they like.  They close their minds to any other options.  They have done this for so long their minds and hearts don't know what truth is.  They are self serving and ignore God even making up lies to justify their thoughts.  


We keep hearing about climate control in the USA, it's Obama's favorite topic and investment.  After Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, an Environmental conference was held.  It was horrible there was less than 1/4 of an inch of water lost from our shorelines.  That doesn't concern me as much as the people still trying to rebuild their homes.  They also worry about the polar ice caps melting.  Yet 2 ice cutter ships got stuck in the ice last winter.  I love Christianity.  With God, humans are His best asset.  Not the ice or the water which He created.  We must protect our world but not pretend to control it. That's God's domain.

What would it feel like to believe we are just fine the way we are?  To just relax, work hard, sleep well, laugh, love and dance.  We'll know in Heaven for sure : )


20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
When I put off my old ways and temptations, I feel like a new woman.  I have joy in my heart.  I am respected and loved.  Only God can provide the peace that passes understanding.  When we have faith and walk in the light, the fruit of His Spirit comes.  Paul describes it in his letter to the Philippians.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:4-7 NKJV)

25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” 
Guilty!  I have a hard time telling other people (except my husband) that they are upsetting me.  We live in a townhouse that's close to other homes.  My neighbor  throws their beach towels over our courtyard fence when they're wet.  It's a small private space and I usually just push them off our side onto theirs.  I really should ask them to stop.  Nothing like seeing someone elses laundry in your courtyard...  Do we have to be honest?

for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 
Members of one another describes the body of Christ.  We are His hands, ears, feet...  God has given all of us gifts and talents to share.  My husband and I try not to let the sun go down on our anger.  I just can't sleep when I'm mad.  Neither can he.  We sometimes have pillow fights or squirt gun fights to get out of the angry mood.  It works well. Basically it's taking ourselves too seriously.

27 nor give place to the devil. 
This describes giving the devil a place (foothold) when we dwell in anger instead of faith.  I hate being angry it's so annoying.  Anger is a necessary emotion to help us change things but it's not good to constantly feed it.  "Did you see that lady?  She just hit my cart with her cart.  How rude!" and then pace all night... Not that I would ever... ok I would.

28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
This verse sounds like it's for new Christians. I was so confused when I first became a Christian.  I didn't feel like sinning as much.  I think that's normal when we first go to Church.  It's all so intimidating.  Paul is giving an alternative that's to be useful.   I am happy to say, "I'm working quietly with my own hands now!"  I'm at home.  Hopefully this blog is useful for others : )  Ok I do talk to myself and the kitties sometimes... /blush

 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking greaves the Holy Spirit.  I definitely don't want to do that.  He would rather we are kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving, just like Jesus forgave us.

Dear Heavenly Father,
I pray for those in Iraq and Israel.  I pray for peace in Jerusalem, for the Holy cities in the middle east.  They are in a precarious place with all the fighting.  Lord, I pray You will give our Congress courage to do what must be done in the White House.  Please let your Spirit bless the children from Central America still waiting in warehouses.  I pray they will be able to live safely in Central America.  Thank You for all the blessings you have given us.  Be with those in Ukraine.  Bless our allies and help all our nations be strong.  In all these things let the right win and the wrong fail.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Here's a song by Matt Maher, "Alive Again" (link)

If you have a prayer request feel free to write it in Comments.  I'd be happy to pray for you.  God bless!

Made by God

© Karen Kyle Ericson, all rights reserved.

Ok, so for my younger years, I had perfectly straight hair.  Except for the part right above my right eye-  one curly lump.  I was waiting to ask God what He was thinking with that in Heaven.  But, things changed, now all my hair is curly : )  I like it, it's so much easier to style.  We get so picky about our appearance.  But what we consider a flaw, God did with love.  There are no accidents (like parents sometimes think)- we were all created by Him.

Psalm 139:13-24

God designs us before we were born.  He already had something figured out.  Hair color, eyes, nationality, strengths, weaknesses, He knew.  The more I learn about bodies from science, the more I am amazed at our design.  Even our fingers bend in three places.  We blink to keep our eyes moist.  Our tongue gets dry when we are thirsty- our stomach growls when we're hungry.  Maybe He knew some of us would skip meals while working : )

13 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;

you formed me in my mother's womb. 

14 I thank you, High God — you're breathtaking!

Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

We were made to worship God.

I worship in adoration — what a creation! 

15 You know me inside and out,

you know every bone in my body;

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,

how I was sculpted from nothing into something. 

He even loved us while we were teenagers.  He knew we'd need to grow and learn.

16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;

all the stages of my life were spread out before you,

The days of my life all prepared

before I'd even lived one day.

I drew the cartoon above from my imagination- but can you imagine God's?  Wow!  Don't think my mind could begin to grasp what He thinks.  He's counted the grains of sand on the shore, knows the stars by name.  I knew what people look like before I drew my cartoon, God creates from nothing.

17 Your thoughts — how rare, how beautiful!

God, I'll never comprehend them! 

18 I couldn't even begin to count them — 

any more than I could count the sand of the sea.

Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you! 

One day He will do away with wickedness for good.  We're all looking forward to that.  But for now we need to serve Him and guide others to Him.

19 And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!

And you murderers — out of here! —  

20 all the men and women who belittle you, God,

infatuated with cheap god-imitations. 

21 See how I hate those who hate you, God,

see how I loathe all this godless arrogance; 

22 I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.

Your enemies are my enemies!

David is asking again for God's examination.  So glad we have the Holy Spirit today, so we get immediate feedback.  Personally, I get this bad feeling when I mess up- or just get something wrong.  But, I ask daily for guidance.
23 Investigate my life, O God,

find out everything about me;

Cross-examine and test me,

get a clear picture of what I'm about; 

24 See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong — 

then guide me on the road to eternal life.
THE MESSAGE

God's thumbprint

A short Psalm with a delightful message.   It starts out telling us to "make a joyful shout,"  "serve the Lord with gladness,"  "come before Him with singing."  Sort of makes me want to jump and dance.  In verse 3, we are told, "Know that the Lord, He is God."  He made me, I didn't make myself. 

In this day and age we are taught we can be whatever we want to be.  By age 50, you realize if you can't sing, it's best to avoid that career.  If you're afraid of heights, building skyscrapers is probably not for you (probably not the best idea for clumsy people either).  If you're highly creative, you can easily drive mathematical geniuses crazy.  Not that I would ever...  But why is that?  Because God created us.  We didn't create ourselves, and we can't make ourselves into something we're not.  He gave each of us gifts and talents, both spiritual and physical.  His thumbprint is on all of us.  We are all unique.  That's why just working for the big bucks rarely brings satisfaction.  It's not what we were designed to do.  But when we do get to use our gifts and talents, we soar!

Psalms 100

1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

2 Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

3 Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5 For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations.

NKJV

Not done yet

God smiled on His earth, His creation. 
Gen 1:31
31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
NKJV
Sadly, we don't always realize what we have.  It's easy to become ungrateful or just not notice what's going on around us. I remember shooting a gargoyle on the top of a building in NYC.  I had my camera on a tripod.  A man in a business suit walked up beside me to see what I was shooting. It made me wonder how many people live in the city and miss out on details like this.  But God doesn't give up on us.  The struggle with faith and thanksgiving was huge for the people of Israel.  We still have that struggle today as Christians.

Psalms 85

1 God, you smiled on your good earth!

You brought good times back to Jacob! 

2 You lifted the cloud of guilt from your people,

you put their sins far out of sight. 

3 You took back your sin-provoked threats,

you cooled your hot, righteous anger.

I can pray along with this Psalm, "Help us again."  Jesus provided the new start we needed, the resurrection life.  After I accepted Christ, the first thing I noticed was I laughed for the first time in years.  I was watching a TV show and just started laughing.  I think the first fruit of the Spirit I experienced was joy.  With the current political climate in North America, this prayer is important.

4 Help us again, God of our help;

don't hold a grudge against us forever. 

5 You aren't going to keep this up, are you?

scowling and angry, year after year? 

6 Why not help us make a fresh start — a resurrection life?

Then your people will laugh and sing! 

7 Show us how much you love us, God!

Give us the salvation we need!

In Heaven there will be no more religions, no one will be called, "fools."  All questions will be answered.  He loves His holy people which includes the Jews- all people who accept Jesus' sacrifice. 

8 I can't wait to hear what he'll say.

God's about to pronounce his people well,

The holy people he loves so much,

so they'll never again live like fools. 

9 See how close his salvation is to those who fear him?

Our country is home base for Glory!

Love, truth and right living are a result of our faith.  At least I do my best with living right.  I am definitely not perfect.  I don't know any Christians who want to destroy others because they don't believe like they do.  I do know a lot of Christians who try to help others with food, visiting in prisons, clothes, and other things, regardless of their beliefs.  Jesus is our example.  He showed us how to live. 

10 Love and Truth meet in the street,

Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss! 

11 Truth sprouts green from the ground,

Right Living pours down from the skies! 

12 Oh yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty;

our land responds with Bounty and Blessing. 

13 Right Living strides out before him,

and clears a path for his passage.
THE MESSAGE
"Right Living strides before us, and clears a path for His passage" just like Palm Sunday in the New Testament (Matt 21:4-11).  Jesus, Son of God, chose to ride a donkey into Jerusalem.  Though He is God, the King of King's, He came to earth in humility.

This mess...

Ps 30:1-3
I give you all the credit,
God — you got me out of that mess,
you didn't let my foes gloat.
2 God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
3 God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out.
THE MESSAGE

So many times I've gotten stuck.  And so many times He's pulled me out of my mess.  It's great to know He has a plan.  He loves us all so much.  We are his creation.  I remember helping in a Sunday School class of children.  They were so small and cute.  Then the comparisons started...  "Your hair's ugly.  Everyone stay away from her!"  I felt so bad; these cute little girls should have been laughing and playing.  I made them stop.  I think that's how God sees us.  All the same with a unique smile- something special He put in us.

I read this quote in The Secret of the Swamp King, Jonathan Rogers.  It's from the Wilderking trilogy, a very fun children's story.  "A bird might think he deserves to swim as well as a fish, but if he sits moping on the riverbank instead of using the wings God gave him, the fox is going to eat him." p. 221.  

We're all just trying to do our best with our lives.  It's good to know God will help us out when we get stuck. He created us after all.